Join us at NCDD Austin this October!    

2008 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation: Creating Cultures of Collaboration

October 3-5, 2008 - Austin, Texas, U.S.

Are you dedicated to solving tough problems through honest talk, quality thinking and collaborative action? Come join hundreds of others who believe that better communication is the key to solving many of the biggest problems facing our organizations, communities, and societies.

NCDD’s dynamic conferences bring together leaders and future leaders in public engagement, conflict resolution and related fields to share resources and strategies, build lasting relationships, increase the visibility and effectiveness of their work, tackle challenges we face, and initiate collaborative projects. Many people who have attended NCDD conferences say they’re the best conferences they’ve ever attended.

Why You Should Join Us…

• Who attends NCDD conferences?
• What people say about our conferences
• Learn about registration rates, student discounts, scholarships
• Watch the 2006 conference video

Get Ready for NCDD Austin…

• Register now
• Check out the conference program
• Order yourself some Moo Cards for networking!
• Make your travel and hotel arrangements
• Share your ideas with the Planning Team

NCDD Austin’s Co-Sponsors include the Public Conversations Project, the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy at Kansas State University, the Global Facilitator Service Corps, the Forum Foundation, the Democracy Imperative, the Bluebonnet Hills Christian Church, the LBJ Presidential Library, and Regis University’s Institute on the Common Good. Our partners are Everyday Democracy and Hal Saunders. Learn more about all of our sponsors and supporters.

More About NCDD Austin

NCDD conferences provide people who are committed to helping dialogue and deliberation flourish in the world with the opportunity to increase their skills and knowledge in these processes, share their own learnings and innovations with others, and develop supportive, collaborative relationships with their peers. Perhaps most importantly, NCDD conferences leave participants feeling more motivated, energized, supported and prepared to do this vital work.

NCDD conferences are chock-full of opportunities to network with colleagues, learn about and experience innovative group methods, explore key issues together, and hear from leaders in the field. Our conferences are not your typical panel/keynote-riddled conventions that leave you wandering the lobby. Some people say they’ve never attended better conferences.

At NCDD Austin, you will experience…

Highly participative plenary sessions that allow you to experience large-group dialogue and deliberation methods while enabling the community to explore issues relevant to the field.

Our Reflective Panel, for example, will feature figureheads in our field (David Campt, Bill Isaacs, Frances Moore Lappe and Carolyn Lukensmeyer) engaging in dialogue with each other about our field’s greatest challenges and what needs to be done to address them. More about our featured speakers.

And in our D&D Marketplace, you will learn about dozens of the most exciting tools, programs, and new innovations in the field, and meet the people behind them.

You also get to choose from dozens of innovative workshops offered by leaders in dialogue and deliberation, addressing the issues, challenges and questions most relevant to your work. Learn how War on Terror veterans are using dialogue for healing and empowerment. Help the U.S. Institute of Environmental Conflict Resolution design a long-range citizen engagement process to restore the ecosystem of one of America’s great rivers. Learn how to attract more conservatives to dialogue events. Explore with change experts how D&D contributes to social change. Learn about Deaf Culture and how to work with interpreters and Deaf participants. And that’s just a taste of the great workshops you’ll choose from.

You’ll have numerous opportunities to network with some of the most accomplished, innovative, and inspiring people in the field - NCDD attendees! We’ll be offering structured networking sessions that enable people to meet others who share their interests, as well as plenty of time and space for informal networking.

And we know you’ll enjoy experiencing how the arts can enhance dialogue and deliberation, by watching and interacting with our graphic facilitators, listening to slam poetry performed by local young people, and taking part in a conference-wide experiment to compose a musical composition based on what we’re learning and experiencing.

NCDD gatherings are not your run-of-the-mill conferences. Instead of parading endless speakers in front of you in the hope that you will absorb some of their knowledge, we acknowledge and tap into every participant’s expertise and unique perspectives, and ask you to play an active role in shaping the future of this burgeoning field. At NCDD Austin, you’ll have the opportunity to help us make progress on 5 major challenges facing our field identified by participants at previous NCDD conferences…

1. How can we make the values and practices of D&D integral to our public and private systems (government, schools, organizations, etc.)?
2. How can we frame this work in a more accessible and compelling way, so that people of all income levels, education levels and political perspectives are drawn to D&D?
3. How can we demonstrate to powerholders that dialogue and deliberation really do work?
4. How can we strengthen the link between D&D and community action and policy change?
5. How can we address issues of oppression and bias both within the D&D community itself, and throughout society through the use of dialogue and deliberation?

NCDD conferences are known for being innovative, highly participatory, and high energy. Here is what Dave Joseph, Director of Project Development at the Public Conversations Project, wrote to us after he attended the 2006 NCDD conference:

“I have gone to many, many, many conferences, workshops etc. over the past 30 years. NCDD was by far the best conference I have ever attended. It was 100% isomorphic and congruent with our practices, with a focus on developing a sense of relationship, connection and community. The activities all contributed to making it extremely easy for participants to get to know each other by focusing on shared purposes, interests and goals. Plus, you had a wonderful mix of people, of course. The structure really contributed greatly to getting to meet a large number of very diverse people and have fun doing it.”

And Avril Orloff, Project Manager for Canada’s Philia Dialogue on Caring Citizenship, had these kind words for us:

“I’m still coming back to earth after the amazing NCDD conference! It was packed so full of wonderful information, ideas, resources and people that I came away utterly inspired and energized. My heartiest congratulations to your team for pulling it off.

What a monumental effort - and what tremendous results! Thank you for every minute…. You’ve created something that’s going to leave a big legacy, and whose effects will just keep rippling further and further out into the world. To say nothing of a great community of practice - one that I’m honoured to associate myself with.”

See more comments from people who have attended NCDD conferences.

Registration Details

NCDD conferences are more affordable than most national conferences, and we do our best to offer scholarships to those who need them. Our regular registration rate for NCDD Austin is only $375, and NCDD members who have paid the membership fee will save an additional $50 off of registration!

We are offering some great pre-conference workshops the day before the conference, and registration for the day-long sessions is only $95. Registration for the half-day sessions is only $50.

And our friends at the Global Facilitator Service Corps are holding their two-day Disaster and Crisis Intervention workshop right after the conference on October 6th and 7th. Registration for that workshop is $375 ($325 for NCDD members who have paid the membership fee). More details about registration can be found at www.thataway.org/events/?page_id=136.

Need More?

Look over our Frequently Asked Questions page to get answers to typical questions about costs, workshops, the conference venue, and more.

Also, if you want to get a better sense of what NCDD conferences are like, look over the blog post at www.thataway.org/events/?p=41, where we list some of the typical elements of NCDD conferences and link to the schedules for all three past conferences. You can also check out the schedule for NCDD Austin at www.thataway.org/events/?page_id=113.

We also welcome you to look over the conference blog (there’s a lot there already, since we’ve been using the blog to help the planning team work together) and check out the photos taken by 2006 conference participants.